Opinion

Big, Bold Backgrounds

By Andrew Faulkner on October 10th, 2007.

It’s one of the simplest things one could possibly add to a site. It’s extremely easy to achieve in CSS and it doesn’t present many problems at all for the designer who’s laying out a webpage. What am I talking about, then? Big background images (normally) on the body tag of course.
A bit of background to the post

After seeing the ground-breaking Johuaink design (pictured) in early 2006, I imagined that many more designers would start using large, graphic-intense images on the background of their website and that the trend would escalate and break into mainstream websites. For the most part however, this hasn’t happened.

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A way of thinking: PageRank is an SEO bi-product

By Andrew Faulkner on October 3rd, 2007.

PageRank (PR) is a word which will never disappear from the SEO/SEM arena. For some, it’s an obsession. For me, it’s one of the most pointless factors when considering an internet marketing campaign, mainly due to the following factors:

You can only see a change in PageRank on a …

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BBC Radio / Brand Portfolio Brought Into Line

By Matt Davies on September 17th, 2007.

Anybody who listens to the BBC’s online radio service will have noticed that their brands have been updated. This post is a quick review of what they’ve done and an assessment of whether it works.

I find that brand portfolios are always a tricky subject. You find that with any …

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Interview with Smashing Magazine

By Andrew Faulkner on September 3rd, 2007.

Coinciding with Smashing Magazine’s first anniversary (hop over there for their birthday giveaway), we catch up with Vitaly Friedman:
Vitaly, welcome to fadtastic. Please say a few things about yourself and Smashing Magazine.
Andrew, first of all the Smashing Magazine team would like to thank you for the opportunity to …

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Will Software Ever Make Us Redundant?

By Matt Davies on August 24th, 2007.

We are normally so positive about stuff here at Fadtastic. I thought I’d be different and see what we all thought about something negative for once! We are people who face problems on a day to day basis so this shouldn’t be a problem. I just wanted to put something …

Sponsored Link: POS review , and other useful information for those looking for point of sale software and hardware.

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Your Client Problems Solved: Answers (Part 2 of 3)

By Andrew Faulkner on August 14th, 2007.

OK, Part Two of our ‘client issues answered’ series. For those who don’t know what’s going on, read the questions and Part One.

And for those of who are up to date, let’s go straight to the good stuff:
Please can you make our website Number 1 in google?
The simple …

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Interview: Matt Davies on design process

By Andrew Faulkner on August 9th, 2007.

Matt Davies has kindly offered up his thoughts on design processes. Let’s cut straight to the juicy bits:
Matt, what’s the very first thing you do when approaching a new design?
I think of priorities. Design ultimately is about purpose and if your design doesn’t meet its purpose then ultimately the …

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Your Client Problems Solved: Answers (Part 1 of 3)

By Andrew Faulkner on August 7th, 2007.

Thanks to all who asked us a question on the subject of clients last week. Today, I’ve tried my best to provide a win-win situation for the most awkward of client circumstances. Feel free to chime in with your comments at the end or perhaps tell us how …

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Your Client Problems Solved: Call for questions

By Andrew Faulkner on August 3rd, 2007.

Continually having problems with clients? Problems with the things they say, do or expect? Join the club.

I invite you all to submit any (serious) questions relating to client liaison or management. I’ll get some of my acquaintances to aid me in providing a list of possible solutions and publish it …

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Mobile Moans - The Logos Of The Mobile Industry

By Matt Davies on July 17th, 2007.

Do you design logos? If you do, you will understand the importance of looking around at what other companies are doing in regards to their brand identities. A true designer will always spend a lot of time comparing, reviewing and familiarizing himself with logo design trends so that his work …

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Content Extraction

By Steve Rose on June 27th, 2007.

For me, one of the most challenging parts of web development is the discovery phase, or more specifically, getting the content out of my clients. With four out of five of them it’s like pulling teeth. Sometimes I have to wait for five or six months before they eventually give …

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A Bite Of The Apple / Apples New Website

By Matt Davies on June 20th, 2007.

The New Website
Apple have redesigned their website and what a superb example of a good redesign it is. In this post we would like to take a little look at the new design and what has been done to move it on. Here is an example of the …

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